Optimized online marketing and scheduling systems and methods that are based on driving demand for services

ABSTRACT

In some aspects, the disclosure is directed to methods and systems for driving demand for services. An appointment platform operating on a server may identify, based on an appointment inventory of a service provider, an open appointment to be filled. The appointment platform may rank a plurality of users to which the open appointment may be offered. The appointment platform may rank a user of the plurality of users based on a current membership score of the user. The appointment platform may determine, based on the ranking, to offer the user the open appointment. The appointment platform may identify, based on the current membership score of the user, a type of incentive from a plurality of types of incentives, to offer to the user for filling the open appointment.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S.Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 15/680,731 filed Aug. 18, 2017,entitled “OPTIMIZED ONLINE MARKETING AND SCHEDULING SYSTEMS AND METHODSTHAT ARE BASED ON DRIVING DEMAND FOR SERVICES” which in turn is acontinuation of and claims priority to U.S. Non-Provisional applicationSer. No. 13/801,430 filed Mar. 13, 2013, entitled “OPTIMIZED ONLINEMARKETING AND SCHEDULING SYSTEMS AND METHODS THAT ARE BASED ON DRIVINGDEMAND FOR SERVICES”, which claims priority to U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 61/754,356, filed Jan. 18, 2013, entitled “AN OPTIMIZEDONLINE MARKETING AND SCHEDULING SYSTEM AND METHOD THAT IS BASED ONDRIVING DEMAND FOR SERVICES”, all of which are hereby incorporated byreference in entirety for all purposes.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure generally relates to methods and systems that are basedon driving demand for services. In particular, this disclosure relatesto optimized online marketing and scheduling methods and systems thatare based on driving demand for services.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Service providers who rely on appointments or reservations sometimesstruggle with openings in their calendar due to rescheduling,cancellations, no shows, as well as inconvenient time slots. Calendarappointment booking capacity can be significantly impacted (e.g., by20-50%) based on these factors. Current methods for handling thesedynamic schedule changes may include contacting dormant clients,attempts to shift appointments around, or overbooking an appointment. Inmost cases, these continue to be a manual, tedious process (i.e.,contacting clients by phone), and may risk alienating some customers. Inany case, industry standard fulfillment rates are reportedly only atabout 20% for filling these openings.

At the other end of the spectrum, service providers may have a long waitlist for the most convenient or desirable time slots, because of work,school, seasonal or other schedule-related factors that can cause demandto spike in these time slots. In certain cases, the service provider mayaccommodate urgent requests for these time-slots by utilizing a waitinglist and using a manual, inefficient process to manage any last-minuteopenings. Booking an appointment far into the future has also been shownto increase the likelihood of cancellations or reschedules, thus feedinginto problems such as cancellations, no shows, etc. It is estimated thatabout 40% of appointments scheduled more than 20 days ahead eventuallyget canceled or result in no-shows. It has been a challenge for serviceproviders to bridge the imbalance in demand for services.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

Described herein are optimized online marketing and scheduling methodsand systems that are based on driving demand for services. The presentsystems and methods provide an automatic appointment optimizationsolution that can maximize revenue of a service provider. The presentsystems and methods may leverage on incentives and/or loyalty points todrive demand for a service provider's services or products. Users mayeach be assigned a membership score based on a plurality of factors,which may include a past record of consumption of services, awillingness to fill an open service appointment, whether payments forservices were prompt, and the users' reliability or punctuality infulfilling obligations of their appointments. For example, anappointment platform may dynamically update and utilize such scores torank or assign weights to users, and to determine incentives or premiumsto capture new customers, re-activate dormant customers, and/or buildloyalty with active customers. The present systems and methods can alsoplace more choice and/or control in the customer's hands, by allowingcustomers to define their preferences, accumulate loyalty rewards, getaccess to what appointment slots are available for a provider or acrossa number of providers, and determine if the available appointment slotsare convenient for them. These users or customers may determine if anyof these slots are sufficiently convenient or worthwhile to fill in viewof the types and levels of incentives offered to them for filing thoseappointment slots.

In some aspects, the disclosure is directed to a method for drivingdemand for services. The method may include identifying, by anappointment platform operating on a server, based on an appointmentinventory of a service provider, an open appointment to be filled. Theappointment platform may rank a plurality of users to which the openappointment may be offered. The ranking may include ranking a user ofthe plurality of users based on a current membership score of the user.The appointment platform may determine, based on the ranking, to offerthe user the open appointment. The appointment platform may identify,based on the current membership score of the user, a type of incentivefrom a plurality of types of incentives, to offer to the user forfilling the open appointment.

In some embodiments, the appointment platform ranks the user based onthe current membership score. The current membership score may bedetermined based on at least one of: a past appointment record of theuser, a past payment record of the user, a record of services consumedor scheduled by the user, length of the user's membership, the user'sadherence to the provider's service recommendations, revenue potentialfrom the user, proximity of the user to the service provider's location,and the user's insurance plan or other payment method for servicerendered by the service provider. The appointment platform may rank theplurality of users comprising at least one of: wait-listed users, usersbooked for a different appointment, and users due for an appointment.The appointment platform may select a pre-defined number ofhighest-ranked users from the plurality of users, to which the openappointment is offered. The appointment platform may select apre-defined number of highest-ranked users from the plurality of users,to which the open appointment is offered, and assigning the openappointment to a first user from the highest-ranked users to accept theoffer.

In some embodiments, the appointment platform identifies the type ofincentive if it is determined that the user should be offered the openappointment. The appointment platform may identify the type or a levelof incentive based at least in part on one or more of: weathercondition, local condition, proximity in time to that of the openappointment, and amount of interest from users at that time. Theappointment platform may identify the type or a level of the incentivebased on historical appointment utilization data from the serviceprovider, and a type of service offered with the open appointment. Incertain embodiments, the appointment platform may identify a type ofincentive comprising at least one of: a reward point, a credit towardsfuture services, a gift card or certificate, and a discount. Theappointment platform may update the user's membership score based on atleast one of the user accepting to till the open appointment, the user'ssubsequent cancellation of the appointment, the user's attendance at orabsence from the appointment, and the user's punctuality at theappointment.

In some aspects, the disclosure is directed to a system for drivingdemand for services. The system may include an appointment engineoperating on a server. The appointment engine may identify an openappointment to be filled based on an appointment inventory of a serviceprovider. The appointment engine may rank a plurality of users to whichthe open appointment may be offered. The appointment engine may rank auser of the plurality of users based on a current membership score ofthe user. The appointment engine may determine to offer the user theopen appointment based on the ranking. The system may also include anincentive engine, identifying, based on the current membership score ofthe user, a type of incentive from a plurality of types of incentives,to offer to the user for filling the open appointment.

In some embodiments, the appointment engine ranks the user based on thecurrent membership score. The appointment engine may determine thecurrent membership score based on at least one of: a past appointmentrecord of the user, a past payment record of the user, a record ofservices consumed or scheduled by the user, length of the user'smembership, the user's adherence to the provider's servicerecommendations, revenue potential from the user, proximity of the userto the service provider's location, and the user's insurance plan orother payment method for service rendered by the service provider. Theappointment engine may rank the plurality of users comprising at leastone of: wait-listed users, users booked for a different appointment, andusers due for an appointment. In certain embodiments, the appointmentengine selects a pre-defined number of highest-ranked users from theplurality of users, to which the open appointment is offered. Theappointment engine may select a pre-defined number of highest-rankedusers from the plurality of users, to which the open appointment isoffered, and may assign the open appointment to a first user from thehighest-ranked users to accept the offer.

In certain embodiments, the incentive engine identifies the type ofincentive if it is determined that the user should be offered the openappointment. The incentive engine may identify the type or a level ofincentive based at least in part on one or more of: weather condition,local condition, proximity in time to that of the open appointment, andamount of interest from users at that time. The incentive engine mayidentify the type or a level of the incentive based on historicalappointment utilization data from the service provider, and a type ofservice offered with the open appointment. The incentive engine mayidentify a type of incentive comprising at least one of: a reward point,a credit towards future services, a gift card or certificate, and adiscount. The appointment engine may update the user's membership scorebased on at least one of: the user accepting to fill the openappointment, the user's subsequent cancellation of the appointment, theuser's attendance at or absence from the appointment, and the user'spunctuality at the appointment.

The details of various embodiments of the invention are set forth in theaccompanying drawings and the description below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, aspects, features, and advantages ofthe disclosure will become more apparent and better understood byreferring to the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1A is a block diagram depicting an embodiment of a networkenvironment comprising client machines in communication with remotemachines;

FIGS. 1B and 1C are block diagrams depicting embodiments of computingdevices useful in connection with the methods and systems describedherein;

FIG. 2A is a block diagram depicting an embodiment of an optimizedonline marketing and scheduling system based on driving demand forservices;

FIG. 2B is a block diagram depicting an embodiment of data collectioninterfaces of an optimized online marketing and scheduling system;

FIG. 2C is a block diagram depicting an embodiment of an analyticsmodule of an optimized online marketing and scheduling system;

FIG. 2D is a block diagram depicting an embodiment of a marketing moduleof an optimized online marketing and scheduling system;

FIG. 2E is a block diagram depicting an embodiment of an appointmentengine or appointment booking module of an optimized online marketingand scheduling system;

FIG. 2F is a block diagram depicting an embodiment of an incentiveengine or yield management module of an optimized online marketing andscheduling system;

FIG. 2G is a diagram depicting an embodiment of a system and method forproviding yield and marketing optimized data;

FIG. 2H is a diagram depicting an embodiment of a system and method forproviding intermediate data exchange and optimization;

FIG. 2I is a diagram depicting an embodiment of a system and method forproviding final data and optimization;

FIG. 2J is a diagram depicting an illustrative embodiment of anappointment platform workflow;

FIGS. 2K-2P depict embodiments of screenshots of interfaces provided byan optimized online marketing and scheduling system disclosed herein;and

FIG. 2Q is a flow diagram of an embodiment of an optimized onlinemarketing and scheduling method based on driving demand for services.

The features and advantages of the present invention will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings, in which like reference charactersidentify corresponding elements throughout. In the drawings, likereference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar,and/or structurally similar elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For purposes of reading the description of the various embodimentsbelow, the following descriptions of the sections of the specificationand their respective contents may be helpful:

-   -   Section A describes a network environment and computing        environment which may be useful for practicing embodiments        described herein; and    -   Section B describes embodiments of optimized online marketing        and scheduling methods and systems that are based on driving        demand for services.

A. Computing and Network Environment

Prior to discussing specific embodiments of the present solution, it maybe helpful to describe aspects of the operating environment as well asassociated system components (e.g., hardware elements) in connectionwith the methods and systems described herein. Referring to FIG. 1A, anembodiment of a network environment is depicted. In brief overview, thenetwork environment includes one or more clients 101 a-101 n (alsogenerally referred to as local machine(s) 101, clients) 101, clientnode(s) 101, client machine(s) 101, client computers) 101, clientdevice(s) 101, endpoint(s) 101, or endpoint node(s) 101) incommunication with one or more servers 106 a-106 n (also generallyreferred to as server(s) 106, node 106, or remote machine(s) 106) viaone or more networks 104. In some embodiments, a client 101 has thecapacity to function as both a client node seeking access to resourcesprovided by a server and as a server providing access to hostedresources for other clients 101 a-101 n.

Although FIG. 1A shows a network 104 between the clients 101 and theservers 106, the clients 101 and the servers 106 may be on the samenetwork 104. The network 104 can be a local-area network (LAN), such asa company Intranet, a metropolitan area network (MAN), or a wide areanetwork (WAN), such as the Internet or the World Wide Web. In someembodiments, there are multiple networks 104 between the clients 101 andthe servers 106. In one of these embodiments, a network 104′ (not shown)may be a private network and a network 104 may be a public network. Inanother of these embodiments, a network 104 may be a private network anda network 104′ a public network. In still another of these embodiments,networks 104 and 104′ may both be private networks.

The network 104 may be any type and/or form of network and may includeany of the following: a point-to-point network, a broadcast network, awide area network, a local area network, a telecommunications network, adata communication network, a computer network, an ATM (AsynchronousTransfer Mode) network, a SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) network, aSDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) network, a wireless network and awireline network. In some embodiments, the network 104 may comprise awireless link, such as an infrared channel or satellite band. Thetopology of the network 104 may be a bus, star, or ring networktopology. The network 104 may be of any such network topology as knownto those ordinarily skilled in the art capable of supporting theoperations described herein. The network may comprise mobile telephonenetworks utilizing any protocol(s) or standard(s) used to communicateamong mobile devices, including AMPS, TDMA, CDMA, GSM, GPRS, UMTS,WiMAX, 3G or 4G. In some embodiments, different types of data may betransmitted via different protocols. In other embodiments, the sametypes of data may be transmitted via different protocols.

In some embodiments, the system may include multiple, logically-groupedservers 106, In one of these embodiments, the logical group of serversmay be referred to as a server farm 38 or a machine farm 38. In anotherof these embodiments, the servers 106 may be geographically dispersed.In other embodiments, a machine farm 38 may be administered as a singleentity. In still other embodiments, the machine farm 38 includes aplurality of machine farms 38. The servers 106 within each machine farm38 can be heterogeneous—one or more of the servers 106 or machines 106can operate according to one type of operating system platform (e.g.,WINDOWS, manufactured by Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash.), while oneor more of the other servers 106 can operate on according to anothertype of operating system platform (e.g., Unix or Linux).

In one embodiment, servers 106 in the machine farm 38 may be stored inhigh-density rack systems, along with associated storage systems, andlocated in an enterprise data center. In this embodiment, consolidatingthe servers 106 in this way may improve system manageability, datasecurity, the physical security of the system, and system performance bylocating servers 106 and high performance storage systems on localizedhigh performance networks. Centralizing the servers 106 and storagesystems and coupling them with advanced system management tools allowsmore efficient use of server resources.

The servers 106 of each machine farm 38 do not need to be physicallyproximate to another server 106 in the same machine farm 38. Thus, thegroup of servers 106 logically grouped as a machine farm 38 may beinterconnected using a wide-area network (WAN) connection or ametropolitan-area network (MAN) connection. For example, a machine farm38 may include servers 106 physically located in different continents ordifferent regions of a continent, country, state, city, campus, or room.Data transmission speeds between servers 106 in the machine farm 38 canbe increased if the servers 106 are connected using a local-area network(LAN) connection or some form of direct connection. Additionally, aheterogeneous machine farm 38 may include one or more servers 106operating according to a type of operating system, while one or moreother servers 106 execute one or more types of hypervisors rather thanoperating systems. In these embodiments, hypervisors may be used toemulate virtual hardware, partition physical hardware, virtualizephysical hardware, and execute virtual machines that provide access tocomputing environments. Hypervisors may include those manufactured byVMWare, Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif.; the Xen hypervisor, an open sourceproduct whose development is overseen by Citrix Systems, Inc.; theVirtualServer or virtual PC hypervisors provided by Microsoft or others.

In order to manage a machine farm 38, at least one aspect of theperformance of servers 106 in the machine farm 38 should be monitored.Typically, the load placed on each server 106 or the status of sessionsrunning on each server 106 is monitored. In some embodiments, acentralized service may provide management for machine farm 38. Thecentralized service may gather and store information about a pluralityof servers 106, respond to requests for access to resources hosted byservers 106, and enable the establishment of connections between clientmachines 101 and servers 106.

Management of the machine farm 38 may be de-centralized. For example,one or more servers 106 may comprise components, subsystems and modulesto support one or more management services for the machine farm 38. Inone of these embodiments, one or more servers 106 provide functionalityfor management of dynamic data, including techniques for handlingfailover, data replication, and increasing the robustness of the machinefarm 38. Each server 106 may communicate with a persistent store and, insome embodiments, with a dynamic store.

Server 106 may be a file server, application server, web server, proxyserver, appliance, network appliance, gateway, gateway, gateway server,virtualization server, deployment server, SSL VPN server, or firewall.In one embodiment, the server 106 may be referred to as a remote machineor a node. In another embodiment, a plurality of nodes 290 may be in thepath between any two communicating servers.

In one embodiment, the server 106 provides the functionality of a webserver. In another embodiment, the server 106 a receives requests fromthe client 101, forwards the requests to a second server 206 b andresponds to the request by the client 101 with a response to the requestfrom the server 106 b. In still another embodiment, the server 106acquires an enumeration of applications available to the client 101 andaddress information associated with a server 106′ hosting an applicationidentified by the enumeration of applications. In yet anotherembodiment, the server 106 presents the response to the request to theclient 101 using a web interface. In one embodiment, the client 101communicates directly with the server 106 to access the identifiedapplication. In another embodiment, the client 101 receives output data,such as display data, generated by an execution of the identifiedapplication on the server 106.

The client 101 and server 106 may be deployed as and/or executed on anytype and form of computing device, such as a computer, network device orappliance capable of communicating on any type and form of network andperforming the operations described herein. FIGS. 1B and 1C depict blockdiagrams of a computing device 100 useful for practicing an embodimentof the client 101 or a server 106. As shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C, eachcomputing device 100 includes a central processing unit 121, and a mainmemory unit 122. As shown in FIG. 1B, a computing device 100 may includea storage device 128, an installation device 116, a network interface118, an I/O controller 123, display devices 124 a-101 n, a keyboard 126and a pointing device 127, such as a mouse. The storage device 128 mayinclude, without limitation, an operating system, software, and asoftware of a demand side platform 120. As shown in FIG. 1C, eachcomputing device 100 may also include additional optional elements, suchas a memory port 103, a bridge 170, one or more input/output devices 130a-130 n (generally referred to using reference numeral 130), and a cachememory 140 in communication with the central processing unit 121.

The central processing unit 121 is any logic circuitry that responds toand processes instructions fetched from the main memory unit 122. Inmany embodiments, the central processing unit 121 is provided by amicroprocessor unit, such as: those manufactured by Intel Corporation ofMountain View, Calif.; those manufactured by Motorola Corporation ofSchaumburg, Ill.; those manufactured by International Business Machinesof White Plains, N.Y.; or those manufactured by Advanced Micro Devicesof Sunnyvale, Calif. The computing device 100 may be based on any ofthese processors, or any other processor capable of operating asdescribed herein.

Main memory unit 122 may be one or more memory chips capable of storingdata and allowing any storage location to be directly accessed by themicroprocessor 121, such as Static random access memory (SRAM), BurstSRAM or SynchBurst SRAM (BSRAM), Dynamic random access memory (DRAM),Fast Page Mode DRAM (FPM DRAM), Enhanced DRAM (EDRAM), Extended DataOutput RAM (EDO RAM), Extended Data Output DRAM (EDO DRAM), BurstExtended Data Output DRAM (BEDO DRAM), Enhanced DRAM (EDRAM),synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), JEDEC SRAM, PC100 SDRAM, Double Data RateSDRAM (DDR SDRAM), Enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), SyncLink DRAM (SLDRAM),Direct Rambus DRAM (DRDRAM), Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), NAND Flash, NORFlash and Solid State Drives (SSD). The main memory 122 may be based onany of the above described memory chips, or any other available memorychips capable of operating as described herein. In the embodiment shownin FIG. 1B, the processor 121 communicates with main memory 122 via asystem bus 150 (described in more detail below). FIG. 1C depicts anembodiment of a computing device 100 in which the processor communicatesdirectly with main memory 122 via a memory port 103. For example, inFIG. 1C the main memory 122 may be DRDRAM.

FIG. 1C depicts an embodiment in which the main processor 121communicates directly with cache memory 140 via a secondary bus,sometimes referred to as a backside bus. In other embodiments, the mainprocessor 121 communicates with cache memory 140 using the system bus150. Cache memory 140 typically has a faster response time than mainmemory 122 and is typically provided by SRAM, BSRAM, or EDRAM. In theembodiment shown in FIG. 1C, the processor 121 communicates with variousI/O devices 130 via a local system bus 150. Various buses may be used toconnect the central processing unit 121 to any of the I/O devices 130,including a VESA VL bus, an ISA bus, an EISA bus, a MicroChannelArchitecture (MCA) bus, a PCI bus, a PCI-X bus, a PCI-Express bus, or aNuBus. For embodiments in which the I/O device is a video display 124,the processor 121 may use an Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) to communicatewith the display 124, FIG. 1C depicts an embodiment of a computer 100 inwhich the main processor 121 may communicate directly with I/O device130 b, for example via HYPERTRANSPORT, RAPIDIO, or INFINIBANDcommunications technology. FIG. 1C also depicts an embodiment in whichlocal busses and direct communication are mixed: the processor 121communicates with I/O device 130 a using a local interconnect bus whilecommunicating with I/O device 130 b directly.

A wide variety of I/O devices 130 a-130 n may be present in thecomputing device 100. Input devices include keyboards, mice, trackpads,trackballs, microphones, dials, touch pads, and drawing tablets. Outputdevices include video displays, speakers, inkjet printers, laserprinters, projectors and dye-sublimation printers. The I/O devices maybe controlled by an I/O controller 123 as shown in FIG. 1B. The I/Ocontroller may control one or more I/O devices such as a keyboard 126and a pointing device 127, e.g., a mouse or optical pen. Furthermore, anI/O device may also provide storage and/or an installation medium 116for the computing device 100. In still other embodiments, the computingdevice 100 may provide USB connections (not shown) to receive handheldUSB storage devices such as the USB Flash Drive line of devicesmanufactured by Twintech Industry, Inc. of Los Alamitos, Calif.

Referring again to FIG. 1B, the computing device 100 may support anysuitable installation device 116, such as a disk drive, a CD-ROM drive,a CD-R/RW drive, a DVD-ROM drive, a flash memory drive, tape drives ofvarious formats, USB device, hard-drive or any other device suitable forinstalling software and programs. The computing device 100 may furthercomprise a storage device, such as one or more hard disk drives orredundant arrays of independent disks, for storing an operating systemand other related software, and for storing application softwareprograms such as any program related to the software 120 for the demandside platform. Optionally, any of the installation devices 116 couldalso be used as the storage device. Additionally, the operating systemand the software can be run from a bootable medium, for example, abootable CD.

Furthermore, the computing device 100 may include a network interface118 to interface to the network 104 through a variety of connectionsincluding, but not limited to, standard telephone lines, LAN or WANlinks (e.g., 802.11, T1, T3, 56 kb, X.25, SNA, DECNET), broadbandconnections (e.g., ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM, Gigabit Ethernet,Ethernet-over-SONET), wireless connections, or some combination of anyor all of the above. Connections can be established using a variety ofcommunication protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, IPX, SPX, NetBIOS, Ethernet,ARCNET, SONET, SDH, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), RS232, IEEE802.11, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, CDMA,GSM, WiMax and direct asynchronous connections). In one embodiment, thecomputing device 100 communicates with other computing devices 100′ viaany type and/or form of gateway or tunneling protocol such as SecureSocket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS), or the CitrixGateway Protocol manufactured by Citrix Systems, Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale,Fla. The network interface 118 may comprise a built-in network adapter,network interface card, PCMCIA network card, card bus network adapter,wireless network adapter, USB network adapter, modem or any other devicesuitable for interfacing the computing device 100 to any type of networkcapable of communication and performing the operations described herein.

In some embodiments, the computing device 100 may comprise or beconnected to multiple display devices 124 a-124 n, which each may be ofthe same or different type and/or form. As such, any of the I/O devices130 a-130 n and/or the I/O controller 123 may comprise any type and/orform of suitable hardware, software, or combination of hardware andsoftware to support, enable or provide for the connection and use ofmultiple display devices 124 a-124 n by the computing device 100. Forexample, the computing device 100 may include any type and/or form ofvideo adapter, video card, driver, and/or library to interface,communicate, connect or otherwise use the display devices 124 a-124 n.In one embodiment, a video adapter may comprise multiple connectors tointerface to multiple display devices 124 a-124 n. In other embodiments,the computing device 100 may include multiple video adapters, with eachvideo adapter connected to one or more of the display devices 124 a-124n. In some embodiments, any portion of the operating system of thecomputing device 100 may be configured for using multiple displays 124a-124 n. In other embodiments, one or more of the display devices 124a-124 n may be provided by one or more other computing devices, such ascomputing devices 100 a and 100 b connected to the computing device 100,for example, via a network. These embodiments may include any type ofsoftware designed and constructed to use another computer's displaydevice as a second display device 124 a for the computing device 100.One ordinarily skilled in the art will recognize and appreciate thevarious ways and embodiments that a computing device 100 may beconfigured to have multiple display devices 124 a-124 n.

In further embodiments, an I/O device 130 may be a bridge between thesystem bus 150 and an external communication bus, such as a USB bus, anApple Desktop Bus, an RS-232 serial connection, a SCSI bus, a FireWirebus, a FireWire 800 bus, an Ethernet bus, an AppleTalk bus, a GigabitEthernet bus, an Asynchronous Transfer Mode bus, a FibreChannel bus, aSerial Attached small computer system interface bus, or a HDMI bus.

A computing device 100 of the sort depicted in FIGS. 1B and 1C typicallyoperates under the control of operating systems, which controlscheduling of tasks and access to system resources. The computing device100 can be running any operating system such as any of the versions ofthe MICROSOFT WINDOWS operating systems, the different releases of theUnix and Linux operating systems, any version of the MAC OS forMacintosh computers, any embedded operating system, any real-timeoperating system, any open source operating system, any proprietaryoperating system, any operating systems for mobile computing devices, orany other operating system capable of running on the computing deviceand performing the operations described herein. Typical operatingsystems include, but are not limited to: Android, manufactured by GoogleInc; WINDOWS 7 and 8, manufactured by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond,Wash.; MAC OS, manufactured by Apple Computer of Cupertino, Calif.;WebOS, manufactured by Research In Motion (RIM); OS/2, manufactured byInternational Business Machines of Armonk, N.Y.; and Linux, afreely-available operating system distributed by Caldera Corp, of SaltLake City, Utah, or any type and/or form of a Unix operating system,among others.

The computer system 100 can be any workstation, telephone, desktopcomputer, laptop or notebook computer, server, handheld computer, mobiletelephone or other portable telecommunications device, media playingdevice, a gaming system, mobile computing device, or any other typeand/or form of computing, telecommunications or media device that iscapable of communication. The computer system 100 has sufficientprocessor power and memory capacity to perform the operations describedherein. For example, the computer system 100 may comprise a device ofthe IPAD or IPOD family of devices manufactured by Apple Computer ofCupertino, Calif., a device of the PLAYSTATION family of devicesmanufactured by the Sony Corporation of Tokyo, Japan, a device of theNINTENDO/Wii family of devices manufactured by Nintendo Co., Ltd., ofKyoto, Japan, or an XBOX device manufactured by the MicrosoftCorporation of Redmond, Wash.

In some embodiments, the computing device 100 may have differentprocessors, operating systems, and input devices consistent with thedevice. For example, in one embodiment, the computing device 100 is asmart phone, mobile device, tablet or personal digital assistant. Instill other embodiments, the computing device 100 is an Android-basedmobile device, an iPhone smart phone manufactured by Apple Computer ofCupertino, Calif., or a Blackberry handheld or smart phone, such as thedevices manufactured by Research In Motion Limited. Moreover, thecomputing device 100 can be any workstation, desktop computer, laptop ornotebook computer, server, handheld computer, mobile telephone, anyother computer, or other form of computing or telecommunications devicethat is capable of communication and that has sufficient processor powerand memory capacity to perform the operations described herein.

In some embodiments, the computing device 100 is a digital audio player.In one of these embodiments, the computing device 100 is a tablet suchas the Apple IPAD, or a digital audio player such as the Apple IPODlines of devices, manufactured by Apple Computer of Cupertino, Calif. Inanother of these embodiments, the digital audio player may function asboth a portable media player and as a mass storage device. In otherembodiments, the computing device 100 is a digital audio player such asan MP3 players. In yet other embodiments, the computing device 100 is aportable media player or digital audio player supporting file formatsincluding, but not limited to, MP3, WAV, M4A/AAC, WMA Protected AAC,AIFF, Audible audiobook, Apple Lossless audio file formats and .mov,.m4v, and .mp4 MPEG-4 (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC) video file formats.

In some embodiments, the communications device 101 includes acombination of devices, such as a mobile phone combined with a digitalaudio player or portable media player. In one of these embodiments, thecommunications device 101 is a smartphone, for example, an iPhonemanufactured by Apple Computer, or a Blackberry device, manufactured byResearch In Motion Limited. In yet another embodiment, thecommunications device 101 is a laptop or desktop computer equipped witha web browser and a microphone and speaker system, such as a telephonyheadset. In these embodiments, the communications devices 101 areweb-enabled and can receive and initiate phone calls.

In some embodiments, the status of one or more machines 101, 106 in thenetwork 104 is monitored, generally as part of network management. Inone of these embodiments, the status of a machine may include anidentification of load information (e.g., the number of processes on themachine, CPU and memory utilization), of port information (e.g., thenumber of available communication ports and the port addresses), or ofsession status (e.g., the duration and type of processes, and whether aprocess is active or idle). In another of these embodiments, thisinformation may be identified by a plurality of metrics, and theplurality of metrics can be applied at least in part towards decisionsin load distribution, network traffic management, and network failurerecovery as well as any aspects of operations of the present solutiondescribed herein. Aspects of the operating environments and componentsdescribed above will become apparent n the context of the systems andmethods disclosed herein.

B. Driving Demand for Services

Prior to examining specific embodiments of optimized online marketingand scheduling methods and systems that drive demand for services, itmay be helpful to examine challenges that this disclosure can address.Typically, service providers who rely on appointments or reservationsmay struggle with openings in their calendar due to rescheduling,cancellations, no shows, as well as non-preferred time slots (e.g.,perceived as inconvenient to potential customers). Calendar appointmentbooking capacity can be significantly impacted (e.g., by 20-50%) basedon these factors. Current methods for handling these dynamic schedulechanges may include contacting or reaching out to dormant clients,attempts to shift appointments around, or overbooking an appointmentslot. In most cases, such actions continue to be a manual, tediousprocess (e.g., contacting clients by phone), and may risk alienatingsome customers (e.g., via overbooking or rescheduling). On the otherhand, service providers may have a long wait list for the mostconvenient or desirable time slots, because of work, school, seasonal orother schedule-related factors that can cause demand to spike in thesetime slots. In certain cases, the service provider may accommodateurgent requests for these time-slots by utilizing a waiting list andusing a manual process to manage any last-minute openings. Allowingcustomers to book an appointment far into the future may not alwayshelp. Rather, this has been shown to increase the likelihood ofcancellations or reschedules, thus feeding into problems such ascancellations, no shows, etc.

The imbalance in demand for services can mean lost revenue opportunitiesfor service providers of any kind, such as those for professional andtechnical services. Such services can include medical, dental, legal,financial and accounting services, including tax preparation. Inaddition, services can include that for HVAC, vehicle repair, electricalwork, gardening or landscaping, workout/trainer/wellness sessions,beauty or cosmetic treatments or operations, massages or spa treatments,housekeeping, and baby/adult/dog-sitting, although not limited to thesetypes of services or sessions. In some cases, service providers may havefixed pricing, or may offer general promotions (e.g., discounts, freeservices) and programs that are not focused on maximizing yields (e.g.,revenues and appointments). For example, when a customer availsherself/himself of a discount through a general promotion, the customermay demand a prime slot which the provider could have filled with a fullpriced customer. Without tools to automatically manage and promote thesupply and demand of (e.g., less preferred) appointments, serviceproviders can suffer from open appointments in their schedules due tocancellations, no shows and such.

Customers or patients, on the other hand, may each have to wait weeks ifnot months to book an appointment at a time that is acceptable. Aprovider's customers are not always able to get appointments scheduledwithin a reasonable window to address their needs. Rather, theirappointments may be scheduled many weeks Or months into the future.Customers can sign-up for standby or wait lists, but based on the manualactions of the provider's staff, may or may not be invited for anappointment. The present systems and methods can put that control in thecustomer's hands. Customers can have access to a provider's availableappointments (e.g., in real time or near real time), whether or not theavailable appointment slots are convenient for them, and if any of theseare convenient enough to book and/or attend because of the incentiveoffered only for those appointments.

Certain systems may access appointment information from provider officesand may publish those appointments online for example. These systems maynot actively help market and till those appointments. That task is stillusually done manually, e.g., by the service provider. In contrast, thepresent systems and methods disclosed herein can incentivize theprovider's customer to actively look for openings and cancellations, andto book them when available. Embodiments of the present systems andmethods can create supply and demand for available inventory (e.g., theappointment slots and service types). Both customers and providers canbenefit from this solution. For example, customers can jump on anopening and be incentivized, and providers' appointments schedule can befilled up more efficiently and/or effectively to have fewer gaps. Thesystem can actively manage this dynamic supply and demand to maximizeyield by analyzing a variety of factors, including a provider'shistorical appointment data (e.g., cancellations by day, week, month,service, local events, etc), provider's historical user data (e.g., whopays on time, carries the best insurance plan to provide payment ifneeded, or has a lowest cancellation rate), and industry rules amongother such factors.

In some embodiments, a system may provide or operate an appointmentlisting site, e.g., for appointments specific to certain providers. Thissystem may list a provider's open appointments by day or time. Such asystem may not be able to create demand from a customer to book anappointment to help to fill inventory in the service provider'sschedule. In certain embodiments, a system may provide or operate anappointment marketplace. Such a system may list multiple providers'appointments on a website. The system may raise the same issues, and mayadd another layer/barrier in that a customer has to choose to go to aprovider whom they may know nothing about, in some embodiments, a systemmay provide a deal site that may offer discounts on a service provider'sservices. These discounts may apply equally to open appointments in aprovider's schedule. Such a solution may not be able to help fill openinventory, and may cause a loss of revenue due to lost fixed costs. Someservices may offer discounts on service appointments, which may not bepossible in the case of medical appointments, for example, since pricesof such services may be set by insurance companies, industryrules/regulations, medical associations, etc. Often, providers may notlike discounts on their services because discounts can devalue theirservice in the marketplace, causing a race to the bottom of the pricingmarket. Discounts can also erode prestige associated with the provider,and in some cases erode customer goodwill (e.g., from full-payingcustomers) leading to a reduction in revenues in the long term.

Various embodiments of the present systems and methods may incorporatean automatic appointment optimization solution that can maximize revenueutilizing incentives or premiums to capture new customers, re-activatedormant customers, and build loyalty with active customers. The presentsystems and methods can leverage incentives or loyalty points to drivedemand for services or products. The methods disclosed herein can beused standalone with any integrated scheduling module or be layered orintegrated to work with any other third party scheduling software (e.g.,DemandForce, Dentrix, ZocDoc, etc.) or group discount website (e.g.,Groupon, LivingSocial, etc). The present systems and methods can providevalue and advantage to a provider by automatically trying to fill anyopenings in a provider's schedule, while giving the provider's customeran opportunity to jump on a last minute appointment, and possibly beincentivized to do so.

The system, sometimes referred to as an appointment platform, service orengine, can include various capabilities to achieve this, including butnot limited to the following. The appointment platform may be configuredto require minimal or no manual intervention to fill open inventory.Appointment openings in a service providers schedule can beautomatically linked or transmitted to the appointment platform. Someembodiments of the appointment platform can analyze what type ofincentive, as well as the level or value of incentive to offer for aspecific type of service, rank users (e.g., waitlisted and/or new users)and inform certain users of service availability. The appointmentplatform can create demand for non-preferred appointment times in aservice provider's schedule. For example, Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. mayalways be available, but due to an incentive being offered through theappointment platform, demand may be created for this non-preferred timeslot by incentivizing a user to act on it. Customers or users lookingfor an appointment within an immediate timeframe (e.g., today) withtheir preferred provider are able to watch for openings and jump on suchappointments immediately as soon as they open up. Certain preferredusers or customers may be incentivized differently or more to take up anopen appointment slot, or to reschedule from their existing slot.

Referring to FIG. 2A, one embodiment of an optimized online marketingand scheduling system based on driving demand for services is depicted.In brief overview, the system may include an appointment platform and anapplication interface. The application interface may provide directand/or network-based interface or access to data such as analytics,provider inventory, and user information (e.g., user schedule,demographic and/or location). The system may sometimes be referred to asthe appointment platform, which may incorporate the applicationinterface as well as any corresponding physical/network/databaseinterfaces. The system may operate on hardware including one or moreservers or computing devices, and may include storage modules forholding data, such as those described above in connection with FIGS.1A-1C.

In accordance with certain embodiments of the system, the appointmentplatform may bring efficiency and maximize yields through incorporationand/or use of one or more intelligent demand-and-yield-based managementmodules. For example, the system may include one or more modules workingtogether and/or independently to perform various functions, dataanalytics and manipulation. The system may be configured or offered as,but not limited to, a hosted online solution (e.g., web service orSaaS), either based on a cloud environment or self-hosted servers. Thisarchitecture can allow for the dynamic scaling, distribution and/orload-balancing of the system to handle increased user activity load atany time without causing interruptions in service.

In some embodiments, the system can utilize data from multiple sourcesto efficiently optimize customer demand, provider inventory take-upand/or user experience. The system may collect, request for, orotherwise access, via its interfaces, open appointment inventory fromone or more providers. Open appointment inventory may sometimes bereferred to as openings, appointments, slots, or open/availableappointments/slots. The system may access or collect the inventory datain real-time or based on a delayed schedule (e.g., daily or some otherpredefined schedule, or responsive to specific trigger events or metricssuch as a detected change in a provider's schedule) using multiplemethods to collect this data (e.g., shared access, authenticated access,database synchronization messages or instructions, etc). In someembodiments, the system may provide and/or communicate with applicationagents, which may reside at a provider/user/customer's system (e.g., aserver or computing device hosting or providing access to an appointmentdatabase, schedule, etc).

The system may access information or analytics such as historical demandfor services and appointment slots, current or updated demand for these,active or dormant customers of the provider, including new customers,and available types of services offered by the provider, each of whichmay include a corresponding service duration, and availability offacilities/equipment/personnel, for matching with an appointment timeslot. The system may access, collect and/or analyze historicalappointment utilization data from each provider or certain providers.The system may access, collect and/or analyze historical customerappointment and billing data to determine how customers may rank withregards to, for example, appointment attendance, insurance or otherpayment method, and on-time payments, punctuality, among other factors.

The appointment platform may be configured to receive and/or adhere topractice management rules and guidelines, which may be related to aprovider's in-office rules, industry rules or guidelines, and servicenetwork membership rules or guidelines, and/or specific to the rules ofan insurance company or other partner entity, for example.

Referring again to FIG. 2A, the appointment platform may include a yieldmanagement module or incentive engine. The incentive engine maydetermine or generate customer-specific incentives e.g., types and/orlevels of incentive) and loyalty rewards based on any of the aboveanalytics. The incentive engine may interoperate with a loyalty programmanager to access, update and/or manage loyalty rewards. In someembodiments, the loyalty program manager determines, generates, assignsand/or maintains loyalty rewards for a customer, and may provide any ofthis information to the incentive engine (e.g., to determine auser-specific incentive) and/or appointment engine (e.g., to rank auser). The appointment platform may, in some embodiments, include amarketing module. The marketing module may implement processes formarketing open inventory and associated incentives/rewards tocurrent/dormant/new customers. Marketing may, for example, be donethrough online portal(s), apps on mobile devices, add-ons for desktopapplications, etc. The above modules of the appointment platform mayautomate all or some of the above processes among others so as to bringoptimization across various processes, some of which may be toochallenging or performed manually or inefficiently in the past.

Referring now to FIG. 2B, one embodiment of the data collectioninterfaces of an optimized online marketing and scheduling system isdepicted. In terms of data collection or access, one of most basicunderlying data the system may need from a provider is the provider'scurrent open inventory of appointments. The system and/or the providermay provide one or more interfaces for accessing the inventory and/orprovider preferences. For example, FIG. 2B shows embodiments where anapplication agent may provide automated access, a text-based entryinterface where a provider may manually input, send or uploadinformation for access, and/or a customer service option in which acustomer service representative or operator may interface with theprovider via phone or live-chat for example, to update information.Based on the inventory and/or preference data, and in certainembodiments based on additional rules (e.g., pertaining to incentivelimits, time of day, weather, etc) and/or other analysis of businessdata, the system can market these openings optimally to potentialappointment takers.

The current inventory of appointments can be input into our system usingnumerous methods. For example, and in further details, such methods mayinclude operator assisted check-ins with the provider at specific timesin the day, and the provider may phone, email or use a web-interface tocontact an operator to provide inventory updates. In some embodiments,automated software agents may be provided and installed on a provider'sserver(s). Such software agents may intercept, detect or accessinventory updates within the provider's system, and may provide asecure, authenticated and/or encrypted communications link or sessionwith the application platform. In certain embodiments, web-based entryof openings may be performed by providers, their staff, or operatorssupporting the application platform, etc. Certain embodiments of thesystem have the capability to interface and work with a provider'scurrent booking/appointment system, and/or integrate with any3^(rd)-party add-on the providers may use for this business process(e.g., DemandForce, etc). The system may employ the additional data,collected via the automated software agents for example, in determiningvarious incentive, user-ranking and/or marketing strategies, forexample.

Data accessed by the system via any of the interface embodiments mayinclude, but not be limited to historical appointment data to measurepast performance, provide projections, or to identifybooking/cancellation trends, for example, to identify (a) types ofservices that had the least and/or most cancellations in the past, (b)effect of (e.g., good/bad) weather on appointment cancellations,attendance or punctuality, (c) success (e.g., of in-house staff or amarketing channel) in filing an opening, (d) lost appointment inventory,etc. The data accessed may include historical and current customer datato measure characteristic or attributes such as (a) which customers haveoverdue services which are pending, (b) customers who pay on time or paylate, (c) customers who cancel appointments at the last minute, (d) themodes of payment a customer may rely on (e.g., check, cash, credit card,PayPal), etc. The data accessed may sometimes include insurance rules,e.g., (a) which insurance companies pay on time, (b) the payment rate,or the percentage of payment per service to the provider, (c) the annualpayment or coverage limit of an insurance provider, (d) co-payrequirements of an insurance carrier, etc.

In some embodiments, the system may factor in additional data from othersources such as (a) weather at a providers location to predict possiblecancellations, (b) any events in the providers general area or localitywhich may arise delays or cancellations or demand, (c) the number ofpeople or requests for appointments at a providers website, (d) thenumber of phone calls the providers office is receiving, etc. The systemcan utilize all or some of this data and/or analytics, as disclosedherein, to figure out an optimal approach to marketing an openappointment, with the goal that that an open appointment should not gowasted, hence reducing costs and generating additional revenue for theprovider.

Referring now to FIG. 2C, one embodiment of an analytics module of anoptimized online marketing and scheduling system is depicted. In certainembodiments, the analytics module is a core module of the appointmentplatform, and may include an appointment engine and/or an incentiveengine. The analytics module may include an analysis engine, or maysometimes be referred to as the analysis engine. The analytics modulemay consider numerous factors to determine an optimal way to marketavailable appointments to customers. The analytics module may becustomizable to incorporate additional factors or a differentcombination of factors, at any time, and may do so on aprovider-to-provider and/or a service-type-by-service-type basis. Theanalytics module may consider one or more of these categories offactors, though not limited to the following: (1) Appointments, (2)Customers, (3) Services, (4) Rules, (5) Incentives, (6) External, and(7) Industry Rules/Rates, at least some of which have been describedearlier. Some of these factors may be designated top-level factors, andmay have more specific weighted sub-factors which can allow detailedassessment or quantification of various characteristics.

In particular, for Appointments-based factor(s), the analytics modulemay analyze a provider's historical data to give insight into differentcharacteristics of how their service appointments are handled. Forexample, the analysis engine can look at data for the month of July overthe last five years and determine that appointments of service A are notin-demand (e.g., this may be due to warm weather in the summer duringwhich customers may not want to make office visits). Recognizing thischaracteristic, the analysis engine can predict that there might benumerous opening of service A and as a result the incentives offered mayhave to be of a type or level that is more attractive to a potentialcustomer.

The analysis engine may rank or weight each opening, relative to any setof openings. The analysis engine may rank or weight each opening basedon, for example, current demand for an opening, historical demand,revenue potential from the opening, remaining time to the opening,and/or any custom rules. The analysis engine may perform the rankingusing prioritized weighting on one or more factors. In some embodiments,a default set of factors, and a default set of weights corresponding tocertain factors, may be incorporated in the ranking.

With regards to Customers-based factors, the analysis engine may be ableto measure or determine many characteristics of users, including aprovider's current customers. For example, the analysis engine may lookat customer A and customer B, and their past appointment attendance, andrecognize that customer A tends to cancel his/her appointments at thelast minute (e.g., more so than customer B). Understanding orrecognizing that this behavior may not beneficial to the provider and/orother customers, the incentive offered to customer A on a particularopening may be less or of a different type than that offered to customerB. In some embodiments, the selection of incentives may provide apreference to customer B over customer A. In other embodiments, theselection of incentives may influence the behavior of customer A, sothat he/she is less likely to cancel the appointment.

The analysis engine may rank users, including active or dormantcustomers, as well as new users or potential customers. The ranking maybe performed based on factors such as payment history, attendancehistory, service request history, revenue potential of a user, insuranceprovider, provider or appointment platform loyalty program status,reviews of services deriving from a user, demographics of users,referral history, and other custom rules and factors. The analysisengine may perform a ranking using a prioritized weighting on one ormore factors. In some embodiments, a default set of factors, and/or adefault set of weights corresponding to certain factors, may beincorporated in the ranking.

With regards to Services-based factors, providers may offer numeroustypes of service appointments. Based on this and other data, theanalysis engine may be able to determine that Service A is morein-demand vs. Service B. The analysis engine may decide, based on thedetermination, not to incentivize too heavily on Service A.

The analysis engine may rank or weight each service, relative to any setof services. The analysis engine may rank or weight each service basedon, for example, current demand for an service, historical demand,revenue potential from the service, remaining time to the serviceopening, and/or any custom rules. The analysis engine may perform theranking using prioritized weighting on one or more factors. In someembodiments, a default set of factors, and a default set of weightscorresponding to certain factors, may be incorporated in the ranking.

With regards to Rules-based factors, the analysis engine may incorporateany number of custom, industry and/or provider rules to rank, weight orprioritize users, openings, services and/or incentives. For example, theanalysis engine may apply rules pertaining to revenue recognition and/orcollections, insurance guidelines, customer selection or preference,incentive targets, and workflow management. For example, where aprovider's office accepts different types of insurance, the analysisengine may be able to determine that customer B has a better insuranceplan vs. customer A based on payment ratio, payment limits andreimbursement timelines. The analysis engine may decide, based on thedetermination, that certain types and/or levels of incentives (e.g.,better incentives) should be offered to customer B. Other rules maydirect or influence the analysis engine to consider if a customer canbook an appointment for a service which is covered by insurance ifrendered only at X interval (once in 6 months, etc.)

With regards to Incentives-based factor(s), based on incentive limits(if any) set by providers for their service offerings, the analysisengine may be able to determine which type and/or level of incentive tohelp fill specific service appointments. The analysis engine mayincrease, decrease, or promote certain types of incentives based on anyone or a combination of the time of day, weather, location of useraccessing the openings, etc. Thus, the analysis engine can provide(e.g., via the incentive engine) the capability of performing dynamicincentive modeling to help entice users to book an appointment.

With regards to External-based factor(s), such factors can include, butis not limited to (a) the time remaining to an appointment, (b)proximity of a user, e.g., one searching for available appointments to aprovider, (c) local weather conditions, and (d) events that may takeplace locally, e.g., proximate to the appointment. These factors canhelp weigh the cost value of an appointment, and allow incentives to bedecided appropriately by the analysis engine (e.g., via the incentiveengine), so as to result in the filling of the appointment.

With regards to factors pertaining to Industry Rules/Rates, certainembodiment of the analysis engine can be configured or designed to trackindustry specific rules and rates of appointment filling, no-shows,cancellations, and may factor all or some of these into analytics forappointments, user-ranking, marketing and/or incentives.

Referring now to FIG. 2D, one embodiment of a marketing module of anoptimized online marketing and scheduling system is depicted. Themarketing module can automate many of the processes involved to connectusers with their existing providers and/or potential providers in oursystem. The marketing module can include various sub-components,including some or all of, but not limited to modules for: (a)Advertisement Management, (b) Customer Activity, (c) Inquiry Management,(d) Lead Management, and (e) Sales Management.

The marketing module may incorporate an Advertisement Management module.Based on various business and/or pricing rules per service provider, orper service type, the advertisement management module can auto-market aprovider's openings and incentives via internal and/or external mediums.For example, the system may post openings on external market sites suchas Craigslist or on social media sites, which may be provided by theappointment platform or a third party. If a provider's budget allows,this module can submit or rotate banner advertisements on partnerwebsites. The advertisement management module can automatically informpatients on a standby basis (e.g., on an email list) of openings. Theadvertisement management module may initiate Robo-calls or text messagealerts to select users. This module may perform any of these processesautomatically and/or may trigger the appointment platform's supportteam, or the providers support team, to complete certain requiredactions.

The marketing module may incorporate a Customer Activity module. Thecustomer activity module can track any user service requests and processas required. For example, if a user requests a Service A at a provider'smicrosite and that provider offers the service, the customer activitymodule may allow the user to proceed to the appointment booking process.But if a user requests a different service on the appointment platformwebsite or on a provider's microsite, and the provider does not offerthat particular service, the customer activity module may try to connectthem with other providers in our system who offer the requested type ofservice.

The marketing module may incorporate an Inquiry Management module. Theremay be occurrences in which the appointment platform receives userrequests for services which are not offered by providers already in thesystem. In such cases, the inquiry management module can consolidatesuch requests appropriately so that the appointment platform's salesteam can approach other providers who offer these types of services.

The marketing module may incorporate a Lead Management module. Leadscoming in through multiple marketing channels can be managed within thelead management module. The lead management module can handle revenuesharing or process lead fees to properly calculate the incentives paidas well as to maintain profit margins for the appointment platform. Thiscan apply to both service provider leads as well as customer leads. Thelead management module may also extend into the appointment platform'sincentive program (e.g., via the incentive engine and/or loyalty programmanager), and can track the success of each channel or partnership.

The marketing module may incorporate a Sales Management module. When alead expresses interest in working with or registering with theappointment platform, whether it be a service provider or a customer inbooking an appointment, the sales management module can enable theplatform to market additional opportunities to both sides, so as toincrease revenue potential. The sales management module can track eachprovider's sales statistics to help measure the success of theappointment platform, e.g., in reducing appointments inventory, orrealizing increased sales and/or client base. The sales managementmodule can also keep track of money spent by a consumer so that theloyalty program manager can translate these into rewards in theappointment platform's loyalty program.

In certain embodiments, the marketing module may include a paid-admodule. The paid-ad module may produce and/or place ads on behalf ofadvertisers. These ads may be related to services and/or providersavailable via the appointment platform. The appointment platform mayallow advertisers (e.g., providers, product manufacturers, etc) to placeads through the appointment platform (e.g., on a provider's microsite,or the appointment platform's newsletters, text alerts, etc.)

In a typical offer to a user, the appointment module may be configuredto be neutral to any particular service available for an openappointment. In some embodiments, the appointment platform may makeavailable to a provider an option to promote particular service(s), suchas a premium service as compared to a normal or low-profit-marginservice. For example, the incentive platform may offer better incentivesif a user books an appointment for a preferred service. The marketingmodule may promote or advertise a preferred service available through aprovider when offering a user the opportunity to book an openappointment with that provider.

In some embodiments, the marketing module may market content, openings,services, providers, etc, on any advertising or marketing channels(e.g., social media or other sites) on behalf of a provider or a groupof providers, and optionally association of their services with theappointment platform. Such marketing efforts may increase the provider'sand/or the appointment platform's market presence and/or credibility. Incertain embodiments, the system may incentivize users to refer otherfriends and family members to a provider. For example, a user who makesa referral or connection may receive an incentive, and the referral thatsigns-up with the appointment platform or books an appointment may getan incentive. In some embodiments, the appointment platform mayincentivize users or providers to refer other service providers to joinor partner with the appointment platform.

Referring now to FIG. 2E, one embodiment of an appointment engine orappointment booking module of an optimized online marketing andscheduling system is depicted. In some embodiments, the appointmentbooking module provides an interface for users and providers to accessservices provided by the appointment platform's analytics and yieldoptimization processes. The appointment booking module can allow usersto perform various appointment booking, cancelling, re-schedulingactions. The appointment booking module may allow providers toeffectively view and manage processes such as waitlist, cancellationhistory, trends, and appointment re-scheduling benefits among other suchactions. The appointment engine may provide some of the functionalitiesof the analysis engine or other modules of the appointment platform, forexample, identifying open appointments to be filled, ranking users(e.g., to which an open appointment may be offered), ranking openappointments, ranking services, and determining which user(s) to offeran open appointment.

In some embodiments, the appointment engine includes an AppointmentManagement module. Users may view appointment inventory online and canbook an appointment, cancel or re-schedule an existing appointmentthrough an interface provided by the appointment management module. Theappointment management module may send reminders via email, phone, textmessage, etc, to a user based on set time intervals to make sure that anappointment is not cancelled/re-scheduled at the last minute. The systemmay also verify the validity of appointment requests based on provider,industry, insurance rules. For example, if a provider does not allowcancellations of an appointment within 24 hours of the appointment, theappointment management module may block such an action by a user and/orthe provider's staff. In another example, if insurance company A onlyallows service B to be performed once every 6 months, the appointmentmanagement module may prompt a user to select a different or appropriateappointment based on this rule.

In some embodiments, the appointment engine includes a CancellationIncentives module. If a provider enables an option to providecancellation incentives, the cancellation incentives module canincentivize users to cancel their appointments ahead of time. Theincentive may automatically vary based on the time available to fillthat appointment and will decrease as the time availability reduces. Theincentive may be paid out if the appointment platform is able to fillthe appointment with another user. Incentivizing users for this canallow a provider to proactively manage possible last minutecancellations and increase yield. This feature may automatically verifysuch cancellations based on system/provider rules, for example, no morethan one incentivized cancellation in a three month period may beallowed.

In some embodiments, the appointment engine includes a Waitlist module.Users may be able to request openings based on a specific service or dayof week or time of day via the waitlist module. If an appointment opensup, the waitlist module can automatically rank or weigh the quality ofwaitlisted users, and can contact the top weighted user(s) to determineif they are interested in that available appointment. If the appointmentis accepted by a user on the waitlist, no further waitlist notificationsmay be carried out. The system may provide an interface or messagingsystem that dynamically updates the status of the open appointment,e.g., whether the appointment is still available, and if the incentivefor filling the appointment has changed, so that a user may choose totake action or not.

In some embodiments, the appointment engine includes a Swapping module.The swapping module can allow users to swap their appointments withother users who have appointments with the same provider. This may be anoptional feature and may be enabled on a per-provider and/or per-servicebasis. Users may be able to swap their appointments for compensation orincentives in the form of points, cash, gift, etc. For example, thecancellation incentives module can incentivize a user to give up anappointment and/or reschedule. A customer may seek a particularappointment slot and may utilize part of the customer's accrued loyaltyrewards, membership score and/or incentives to translate into anincentive for another user to vacate the particular appointment. Thecancellation incentives module and/or the swapping module may broker theoffer between the users. A user may however, setup a preference via theappointment platform to not receive such offers. In some embodiments ofthe system, if a user notices that there is someone on the waitlistlooking for a 8:00 a.m. Monday appointment, the user can send thewaitlisted person an offer to swap or release the appointment for 50points in the system. If the waitlisted user agrees, the transaction canbe completed by the swapping module upon possible confirmation from theprovider and verification of swap rules (e.g., a limit of oneappointment swap per a three-month period, etc).

In some embodiments, the appointment engine includes a Schedule Matchingmodule. The schedule matching module can provide and/or interact withvarious smart phone, desktop or other device software add-ons, which canintegrate with a user's schedule and his/her selected providers in thesystem. For example, after a user installs a desktop add-on onto theuser's scheduling software (such as Outlook), the user can configure orset the plug-in to notify the user if a particular provider (e.g.,dentist or mechanic) in the system has any openings for a specificservice, that match an opening in the user's schedule. This way, a usercan quickly and automatically be notified of an open appointment andpossibly an accompanying incentive.

In some embodiments, the appointment engine includes an Inventory Alertsmodule. Users may be able to setup various alerts via the inventoryalerts module by a schedule of their choice. For example, a user caninstruct or request the system to send the user an email each day of allopenings and last minute incentives being offered by their chosenproviders in the system for the coming week. That way, a user canimmediately decide to take an opening identified in an alert if it suitsthe user's need.

Referring now to FIG. 2F, one embodiment of an incentive engine or yieldmanagement module of an optimized online marketing and scheduling systemis depicted. This module may interoperate with, and in some embodiments,rely substantially on the analytics module or appointment engine tooptimize collected data into high yields. One function of this module isto ensure that any available appointment inventory in the system isproperly weighted, incentivized and/or available for advertisement. Theincentive engine may interface with the analytics module or appointmentengine to receive and/or validate ranking information for users,openings and/or services. The incentive engine may determine, based onthe ranking, a type of incentive from a plurality of types ofincentives, to offer to a particular user for filling an openappointment.

The incentive engine may include an incentive balancing engine. Theincentive balancing engine may balance demand with the type and/or levelof incentives that may be offered, to determine the incentive, if any.For example, the incentive balancing engine may offer no incentives forhigh demand services or openings. The incentive balancing engine maydetermine that premiums or pre-payment may be justified for high demandtime slots or services. The incentive balancing engine may determineappropriate incentives for off-peak times and low demand services. Theincentive balancing engine may determine appropriate incentives for newcustomers, e.g., to encourage activity from such customers. Theincentive balancing engine may determine incentives for re-activatingold, dormant or former customers.

The incentive engine may include a market timing optimizer, thatoperates to maximize revenues, analyze value cycles, time available timeslots (e.g., to offer to users), and provide pricing for each microsegment, for example. The incentive engine may include a micro-marketforecaster, which operates to forecast demand at the micro-market level,and identify changes in consumer behavior patterns, for example. Theincentive engine may include a market-based incentive engine, which mayset incentives based on consumer responses (e.g., the amount of responsereceived for a similar appointment opening, or the number of waitlistedusers), and may operate to reduce costs, where identifiable, to maintainmargins for a provider and/or the appointment platform. The incentiveengine may include a segment incentive engine, which may determine andvary incentives to meet incentive sensitivity of each market segment. Incertain embodiments, the incentive engine may identify and save certainpeak times and in-demand services for high-value or preferred customersor users.

In some embodiments, the incentive engine may determine incentives basedon cross promotion of providers and incentives. The incentive enginemay, for example, interoperate with the marketing module to implement ormanage cross promotional efforts. The incentive engine may offer a useraccess (e.g., a free or discounted service voucher) to a secondprovider's service as an incentive for booking an open appointment witha first provider. For example, the appointment platform may determinethat the second provider has an open slot to be filled, and may leverageon that open slot as an incentive to the user to book a differentappointment. By way of illustration, the appointment platform may crosspromote two providers, a dentist and a massage therapist. Theappointment platform may determine that the massage therapist has anopen appointment, and can intelligently offer that appointment as anincentive, to the dentist's customers, to book an open appointment ofthe dentist. Such cross promotional or cross marketing efforts can yielda number of benefits, e.g., simultaneously filling two (or more) openappointments (e.g., with two different providers), increasing theproviders' and/or the appointment platform's overall yield and revenue,and expanding an existing customer base to another provider or service.

In some embodiments, the incentive engine may offer incentives based ontie-ups with manufacturers or suppliers of products related to aprovider's services. For example, the incentive engine may offer a freeelectric toothbrush (which may be sponsored by Oral-B, for example) asan incentive for a user to book an open appointment with a dentist. Theappointment platform may help to promote the product (e.g., electrictoothbrush) on behalf of the manufacturers or suppliers, by offering theproduct as an incentive. In some embodiments, the appointment platformmay partner with, and may be incentivized by, the manufacturers orsuppliers in offering the product as an incentive. The providers may ormay not have to endorse the sponsored incentives for filling theproviders' appointment slots. In some cases, this may be viewed as crosspromotion or marketing across sponsors and service providers.

Referring now to FIG. 2G, one embodiment of a system and method forproviding yield and marketing optimized data is depicted. The system maygenerate optimized incentives or premiums for opening, services and/orusers. The yield management module, based on multiple weighted factors(for example, factors listed in FIG. 2G), can produce an intermediateoptimized set of incentives and/or premiums at a global level. Theoptimized incentives and premiums can be generated dynamically based onpredetermined factors such as fluctuations in inventory or demand. Thesystem may collect, process and aggregate customer responses intoresponse data. This response data may reflect or capture the userresponse to the incentives (e.g., how many people viewed a particularincentive or clicked on it for further details, etc). This response datamay allow the yield management module to batter predict futureincentives to target to consumers.

In certain embodiments, the system may produce a database or list ofweighted customers. This data (e.g., generated from the marketingengine) may represent a weighted list based on any of the one or morefactors discussed (for example, factors listed in FIG. 2G). Serviceproviders may want to configure the appointment platform to stack newusers at the top of the list over current customers, and may determinepreferred customer(s) to maximize the providers' returns. For example,long term loyal customers may supersede a new customer in an attempt tomaintain a relationship. These factors may play into the weighted listwhen incentives are being offered to each individual on the list.

Referring now to FIG. 2H, one embodiment of a system and method forproviding intermediate data exchange and optimization is depicted. Withthe incentives and premiums optimized based on the demand (e.g., basedon current customer responses and historical data), and the customerswaiting for these services weighted based on predetermined factors, theappointment platform can take inventory of weighted openings and/orweighted services.

With regards to determining weighted openings, all openings may not betreated or ranked the same by the appointment platform. Time slots canbe weighted based on time of the day, day of the week, month of theyear, seasons, length of the time slot, and calendars (for example,school or holiday schedules). Typical premium time slots, such as thosescheduled before work/school and after work/school, and on weekends, canbe weighted to require a premium or no incentive. Off-peak times, e.g.,based on historical data and current demand, can be weighted to requirean incentive.

With regards to determining weighted services, services can be weightedby the system based on the amount or potential value of gross marginsand/or revenue. The higher gross margin and/or revenue services can beweighted higher than other services. Requests for higher margin servicescan be used as input to the system to determine which customer gets theoffer, and in what order if there are multiple requests for the sameopening.

Referring now to FIG. 2I, one embodiment of a system and method forproviding final data and optimization is depicted. The appointmentplatform may generate what may be referred to as “final data”, which mayinclude data for automatically populating the service providers'appointment books along with the analytics and workflow to make adetermination or recommendation on which scenarios may produce thehighest margin returns. In some embodiments, the data presented to theuser through the service provider interface can include any one or moreof: (a) Optimized Appointment Bookings, (b) Revenue Benchmarking, (c)Customer Satisfaction Scores, (d) Services Rendered Confirmation, (e)Incentive Delivery Mechanism, and (f) Premium Collection Management.

With respect to Optimized Appointment Bookings, the service provider canbe presented with what-if appointment booking scenarios that show thedifferent customer requests along with analytics to best fill-in theiropenings while maximizing revenues. The service provider can then decidebased on revenue potential which scenario to choose for configuring theappointment platform. With regards to Revenue Benchmarking, the systemcan measure the effectiveness of the system's appointment bookingoptimization based on historical data. Benchmark data may provideanother reference point for the system to automatically fill thecalendar or allow the service provider to make better decisions whenpresented with multiple scenarios. With regards to Customer SatisfactionScores, this data can be used by the appointment platform to trackfeedback from the user once services and incentives have been delivered,and may allow both the service provider and the appointment platform tocontinuously improve operations.

With regard to Services Rendered Confirmation data, the system cangenerate or use such data based on verification that services arerendered. For contractual purposes for example, the appointment platformmay only get paid if services are rendered. The system canelectronically verify with both the service provider and user thatservices are rendered. With regards to Incentive Delivery Mechanismdata, such data can allow service providers and the appointment platformto track whether incentives have been delivered. Depending on theincentive, this data may be a tracking number or an electronicconfirmation from the reward/incentive provider (e.g., VISA, Amex,Amazon, etc). With respect to Premium Collection Management data, thesystem can generate or use this to track whether a customer has usedhis/her loyalty points, or has paid premium fees to get access to peakappointments (e.g., typically before or after work/school) or in-demandservices (e.g., haircuts with the top stylists, access to the bestspecialists). Loyalty points (e.g., instead of premium fee payments) maybe used in cases where the service providers' fees are regulated (e.g.,by health insurance providers).

Referring now to FIG. 2J, one illustrative embodiment of an appointmentplatform workflow is depicted. In this workflow instance, for example, aservice provider may have opted for a configuration which allows themodules of the appointment platform to maximize the provider's yield.The inventory, analytics, scheduler, marketing, yield module, andwrap-up portions of the workflow may operate in accordance with thesystems and methods discussed in connection with FIGS. 2A-2I and 2Q.

FIGS. 2K-2P depict embodiments of screenshots depicting interfacesprovided by an optimized online marketing and scheduling systemdisclosed herein. For example, FIG. 2K depicts one version of a landingpage that features a rotating carousel with offers from featured serviceproviders. The landing page provides a short description of theappointment platform's process for finding service deals. FIG. 2Ldepicts one version of a landing page that features a more detaileddescription of offers from a variety of service providers. This pageprovide an intuitive interface for a user to figure out how to browseand filter the services available. The incentives and opening can beupdated from the appointment platform. FIG. 2M depicts one version of alanding page that is focused on services offered within a city. Theincentives and opening can be updated from the appointment platform.FIG. 2N depicts one version of a landing page focusing op a time basedpresentation of services available. Each of the incentives and openingmay be updated from the appointment platform, FIG. 2O depicts oneembodiment of an interface that registered users can use to create,modify, and save their searches. This interface can also allow users tosetup notifications. FIG. 2O depicts one embodiment of an page for aservice provider, and may be referred to as a microsite. The openingsand rewards may be specific to the service provider. Adjacent servicesor partner services may be featured on such a page.

In some embodiments, the appointment platform can access, track and/ormanage service plan recommendations for a user. The appointment platformcan do so on behalf of a provider or a user. The service planrecommendations may be from a provider, government agency, or a healthauthority, for example. For example, based on an initial or on-goingassessment of a user's service needs, a service plan may drive futureservice recommendations and intervals for these services. The system canautomatically generate incentives and/or messaging to ensure that a useror customer follows the recommended services. The system may rank orassign weights to users to determine who to offer an open appointment,based on their service plan recommendations or needs. The system maymanage a service provider's work flow by keeping metrics on whichcustomers have followed the service plan recommendations, as well ascustomers who represent a revenue opportunity. The loyalty rewardsprogram managed by the loyalty program manager may also drive incentivesas well as the availability of services to the customer.

Referring now to FIG. 2Q, one embodiment of an optimized onlinemarketing and scheduling method based on driving demand for services isdepicted. The method may include identifying, by an appointment engineof an appointment platform operating on a server, based on anappointment inventory of a service provider, an open appointment to befilled (201). The appointment engine may rank a plurality of users towhich the open appointment may be offered (203). The appointment enginemay rank a user of the plurality of users based on a current membershipscore of the user. The appointment engine may determine, based on theranking, to offer the user the open appointment (205). An incentiveengine may identify, based on the current membership score of the user,a type of incentive from a plurality of types of incentives, to offer tothe user for filling the open appointment.

In further details of (201), an appointment engine operating on a servermay identify, based on an appointment inventory of a service provider,an open appointment to be filled. An appointment platform may identify,via the appointment engine, an open appointment to be filled. Theappointment engine may request for, collect, or otherwise access data ofthe appointment inventory via any of the interfaces and methodsdescribed above in connection with FIGS. 2A and 2B. For example, asoftware agent of the appointment platform may be installed on a systemof the provider, to access the provider's inventory data dynamically orbased on an access schedule, on behalf of the appointment engine. Insome embodiments, the appointment platform may provide a web interfacesession or other connection with which a provider may input, post orupload inventory data or updates. The appointment platform may providean operator-assisted interface to the provider to receive inventory dataor updates.

In some embodiments, the appointment engine may access a bookingschedule, calendar or other record of the provider, from which an openappointment may be identified. The appointment engine may access aprovider's inventory through a third-party provider or publisher. Inother embodiments, the appoints lent engine may receive informationregarding specific appointment slots that are available, and/or servicesthat may be offered with these slots, from the provider for example. Theappointment engine may receive or access any type or form of provideranalytics, for example, one or more types of analytics discussed abovein connection with FIGS. 2A-2C, via any embodiment of the interfacesdisclosed herein.

In certain embodiments, the appointment engine may rank or determine aprioritized weight for the open appointment in relation to one or moreother open appointments. The appointment engine may determine a priorityor sequence in processing open appointments, based on the ranking orcorresponding weight. The appointment engine may rank or assign a weightto the open appointment based on one or more of the factors discussedabove in connection with FIGS. 2C-2E and 2G-2H, for example, historicaldemand for a similar appointment slot, duration of the slot (which mayaccommodate certain types of services), and time remaining to theappointment. Based on the ranking or assigned weight of the open slot,the appointment engine will determine a time or order to offer the openappointment for booking.

In further details of (203), the appointment engine may rank a pluralityof users to which the open appointment may be offered. The appointmentengine may rank a user of the plurality of users based on a current orupdated membership score of the user. The appointment engine may rankthe user based on the current membership score, the current membershipscore determined based on at least one of: a past appointment record ofthe user (e.g., attendance record, punctuality, cancellation orrescheduling record), a past payment record of the user (e.g.,promptness in payment and/or any balance yet to be paid), a record ofservices consumed or scheduled by the user (e.g., the value or types ofservices consumed or requested), length of the user's membership (e.g.,with the appointment platform, or relationship with the provider or theprovider's network), the user's adherence to the provider's servicerecommendations (e.g., whether the user is due for a particular service,and whether the user is compliant or cooperative with respect to theservice recommendations), revenue potential from the user (e.g., basedon demographics or the user's insurance fee caps, or a likelihood of theuser requiring a high value service), proximity of the user to theservice provider's location (e.g., a higher likelihood of the user'savailability, based on convenience) which may be determined dynamicallyand/or in real time (e.g., via GPS tracking or WiFi locator), and theuser's insurance plan or other payment method for service rendered bythe service provider (e.g., insurance pay-out rates and limits, rate ofrejected claims, and time to process payments). The appointment enginemay rank a user of the plurality of users, or determine a membershipscore based on the membership status or privilege level of the user(e.g., a platinum, gold, silver or bronze user). The appointment enginemay determine the current membership score based on any of the factorsdiscussed above in connection with FIGS. 2C-2E and 2G-2H.

The appointment engine may rank the plurality of users comprising atleast one of: wait-listed users, users booked for a differentappointment, and users due for an appointment. The appointment enginemay rank the plurality of users which may include new users or formercustomers. The appointment engine may identify a subset of theappointment platform's users to which to potentially offer the openappointment. For example, the engine may identify existing customers ofa provider, or identify a user segment based on user preferences,demographics and/or affinity to services offered by the provider. Theappointment engine may identify users that are currently physicallyproximate to the provider's location, e.g., if the open appointment iswithin a short timeframe from the present. The appointment engine mayidentify users whose residential or work address is near the provider'slocation. The appointment engine may identify users based on a waitlistor standby list (e.g., for the open slot, or for another slot proximateto the open slot). The appointment engine may identify users that havesigned up for a related alert notification.

In some embodiments, the appointment engine may target users interestedin a service offered with the open appointment, but already booked foranother slot (which may be more easily filled, or for which there is aready taker). The appointment engine may target users that recentlycancelled an appointment (e.g., with the possibility that one of suchusers may take up the open appointment based on a continuing need forthe same service). The appointment engine may target users due for aparticular service, e.g., based on a recommended service plan, or ahistory/pattern of consumption of the service. In certain embodiments,the appointment engine may target new users to expand a provider'sclient base.

In some embodiments, the appointment engine ranks or weight each of theidentified or targeted users. The appointment engine may set a higherweight or preference to one or more users based on certain userattributes (e.g., new users, or long time customers of the provider).The appointment engine may select and/or rank a set of users responsiveto availability of an open slot. The appointment engine may calculate orupdate a membership score of a user responsive to availability of theopen slot. The appointment engine may calculate or update the membershipscore based on accrued loyalty rewards and/or incentives of the user.

In further details of (205), the appointment engine may determine, basedon the ranking, to offer the user the open appointment. The appointmentengine may determine to offer one or more users the open appointment,based on their ranking or updated membership scores. The appointmentengine may determine to make the offer to one or more of the highestranked users, or users having the highest membership scores. In certainembodiments, the appointment engine selects a pre-defined number ofhighest-ranked users from the plurality of users, to which the openappointment is offered. The appointment engine may select a pre-definednumber of highest-ranked users from the plurality of users, to which theopen appointment is offered, and may assign the open appointment to afirst user from the highest-ranked users to accept the offer. In someembodiments, the appointment engine may offer all ranked users the openappointment, e.g., with different incentives. In some scenarios, theappointment engine may not send an offer to a user who has received anoffer in an earlier round. In some of these scenarios, the user'sranking may have been adjusted based on any factor discussed above, orlack of action in the earlier round.

In some embodiments, the appointment engine may determine toconcurrently offer the open appointment to a group of users. In certainembodiments, the appointment engine may determine to offer the openappointment sequentially or in an overlapping manner to a group ofranked user, for example, until one of the users accepts the offer. Theappointment engine may send an offer to specific users or groups ofusers (e.g., highly ranked or preferred users) according to a scheduleor priority. The appointment engine may send an offer to additionalusers (e.g., lower-ranked users) based on a lack of initial responsefrom offered users, or based on other factors (e.g., weather changes,local conditions).

In further details of (207), an incentive engine may identify, based onthe current membership score of the user, a type of incentive from aplurality of types of incentives, to offer to the user for filling theopen appointment. The incentive engine may identify a type and/or levelof incentive to the user based on the ranking of the user, which may bebased on the user's membership score. Responsive to, or afterdetermining that a particular user is to be offered the openappointment, the incentive engine may determine a type and/or level ofincentive to offer. For example, the incentive engine may identify thetype of incentive to the user if it is determined that the user meets amembership score or ranking threshold. The incentive engine may notidentify an incentive for users yet to be identified for receiving theoffer. The incentive engine may not identify an incentive for usersdetermined to be excluded from the offer.

In some embodiments, the incentive engine may determine an incentive ora range of incentives for a user prior to an open appointment beingidentified. For example, the incentive engine may determine orpredetermine the incentive or the range of incentives based on apreference of the user, or the user's membership level (e.g., a valuedmember, such as a platinum or gold member). The incentive engine maydynamically adjust the incentive or select from the range based onadditional factors introduced by a specific opening.

The incentive engine may identify the type or a level of incentive basedat least in part on one or more of: weather condition (e.g., rain orsnow storm, which may introduce difficulty or inconvenience to a user inaccepting the opening and/or adhering to the appointment), and/or localcondition (e.g., an ongoing, scheduled and/or predicted event, mayintroduce difficulty or inconvenience to the user). For example, aparade, serious accident, road closures at an appointed time, or aconstruction project could disrupt traffic and access to the providerlocation.

The incentive engine may factor in the amount of time remaining to anopen appointment, to identify an appropriate incentive. For example, theappointment platform may offer a more attractive incentive so as to havea higher probability of attracting a customer to take up an appointmentat short notice. As the time remaining for filling up an appointmentdecreases, the appointment platform may make the incentive moreattractive. In some cases, for example when the provider's costs ofsetting up equipment and/or personnel to prepare for a specific serviceand/or appointment may increase due to short notice, the appointmentengine may adjust the incentive according (for example, reducing thelevel of incentive to maintain profit margins or reduce operatingcosts). In certain embodiments, the appointment engine may determine theincentive to offer based on the amount of interest from users at thattime, for example, through real time data collected on requests or pageviews on a particular service or appointment time, or data from acurrent waitlist.

The incentive engine may identify the type or a level of the incentivebased on one or more of: historical appointment utilization data fromthe service provider, and a type of service offered with the openappointment. The incentive engine may identify the incentive based on ananalysis of historical booking, cancellation and/or no-shows patterns.The incentive engine may identify the incentive based on a projection ofappointment utilization based on past or recent trends. The incentiveengine may identify the incentive based on a type of service offeredwith the open appointment. For example, the appointment engine may rankor assign weights to the types of available services, as described abovein connection with FIGS. 2C-2F, and may confer a premium on specificservices. By way of illustration, the incentive engine may confer abetter incentive for a service appointment that commands a higher profitmargin or revenue potential.

The incentive engine may identify a type of incentive comprising atleast one of: a reward point, a membership upgrade or an online badge(e.g., platinum member), access to premium services or benefits, acredit towards future services, a gift card, voucher, coupon orcertificate, and a discount (e.g., on a follow-up or future service). Insome embodiments, the incentive engine may identify a type of incentivethat excludes or avoids discounts on services offered via openappointments. The incentive engine may be configured to exclude or avoidoffering straight discounts to services so as to promote user loyalty tothe provider and/or the appointment platform using alternativeincentives (e.g., loyalty rewards, a coupon to redeem future services inpart or in whole, a gift card that may only be redeemable at selectproviders, or raising the membership score or level of the user forbetter or easier access to premium benefits). The incentive engine maybe configured to avoid offering straight discounts so as to protect aprovider's list price or market rate for services, or prestigeassociated with a premium service or provider.

In certain embodiments, the incentive engine may identify an incentiveof cash or cash value to a user, which may be available after paymentfor services rendered. For example, instead of discounting a service by25%, and lowering a perceived value of the service and provider, theappointment platform may offer a post-transaction cash incentive. By wayof illustration, for a $400 dental job, the incentive engine may offeran incentive of $100 to a user to take that appointment. The user stillpays $400 to the provider at the point of service, but the user benefitsfrom a cash payout or credit after completion of the transaction.

In certain embodiments, the incentive engine may schedule delivery of anincentive upon completion of the service or transaction (e.g., the userturns up, and/or payment for the appointment is complete). For example,upon receiving a confirmation or notification via a provider interfacethat payment or payment information has been received, the incentiveengine may deliver a predetermined incentive to the correspondingcustomer. The appointment platform may provide an interface to receiveor generate the incentive immediately upon completion of a service orpayment transaction. The appointment platform may provide an interfacefor a provider or user to receive, generate and/or redeem the incentive,e.g., to receive are emailed coupon or electronic gift card, to generatea printout of a voucher. The appointment platform may provide a mobiledevice app or web interface to a user for maintaining and activatingredemption of an incentive.

In some embodiments, the incentive engine may offer an increase orupgrade in the incentive based on user actions, such as prompt paymentafter the service, punctuality for the appointment, and completing areview or survey related to the appointment. The appointment platformmay promote the additional incentive(s) to potential takers of anopening, or an accepted customer, to encourage positive behavior orother user action, and/or to improve provider experience.

In some embodiments, the appointment engine may rank accepted offersfrom a plurality of users (e.g., accepted offers received concurrentlyor within a short period of time). The appointment engine may rank theaccepted offers to determine which one to fill the open appointment. Theappointment engine may rank the accepted offers based on one or morefactors including but not limited to the time of the accepted offer, theranking of a corresponding user, the type and/or level of incentiveoffered. The appointment engine may rank the accepted offers based onany one or more of the factors used to rank an individual user.

In some embodiments, the appointment engine updates the user'smembership score based on at least one of: the user accepting to fillthe open appointment, the user's subsequent cancellation of theappointment, the user's attendance at or absence from the appointment,and the user's punctuality at the appointment. The appointment enginemay update the user's loyalty rewards or loyalty status with acorresponding provider, or with respect to the appointment platform,based on any such user action, behavior or events. In certainembodiments, the appointment engine may maintain a user's membershipscore as separate components (e.g., consumption volume,cancellation/rescheduling frequency), so as to provide categoricaltracking and weighting, e.g., for ranking purposes. The appointmentengine may dynamically update a user's membership score to enableup-to-date processing of a user's transactions (through the appointmentplatform).

It should be understood that the system's described above may providemultiple ones of any or each of those components and these componentsmay be provided on either a standalone machine or, in some embodiments,on multiple machines in a distributed system. In addition, the systemsand methods described above may be provided as one or morecomputer-readable programs or executable instructions embodied on or inone or more articles of manufacture. The article of manufacture may be afloppy disk, a hard disk, a CD-ROM, a flash memory card, a PROM, a RAM,a ROM, or a magnetic tape. In general, the computer-readable programsmay be implemented in any programming language, such as LISP, PERL, C,C++, C#, PROLOG, or in any byte code language such as JAVA. The softwareprograms or executable instructions may be stored on or in one or morearticles of manufacture as object code.

While the foregoing written description of the invention enables one ofordinary skill to make and use what is considered presently to be thebest mode thereof, those of ordinary skill will understand andappreciate the existence of variations, combinations, and equivalents ofthe specific embodiment, method, and examples herein. The inventionshould therefore not be limited by the above described embodiment,method, and examples, but by all embodiments and methods within thescope and spirit of the invention.

We claim:
 1. A system comprising: an appointment engine comprising oneor more processors, the appointment engine configured to: identify, viaa first interface, an appointment with a service provider to be filled,and a first user for selection of the appointment, the first userassociated with a first client; identify a plurality of situationalfactors related to the first user and to the first client associatedwith the user in the selection of the appointment; determine, at a firsttime instance prior to a time of the appointment, according toconditions of the plurality of situational factors, a first type andlevel of incentive to include in a first prompt to the first user forthe selection of the appointment; determine, at a second time instanceafter the first time instance and prior to the time of the appointmentcorresponding to the second time instance, according to conditions ofthe plurality of situational factors, a second type and level ofincentive to include in a second prompt to the first user for theselection of the appointment; provide, via a second interface to thefirst client, an electronic message to present the first prompt and thesecond prompt for selection of the appointment by the first user;determine that the first user has selected the second prompt associatedwith the second type and level of incentive from the electronic messagepresented to the first client, and has completed requirements of theappointment specified by the second prompt; and release, responsive tothe determination, the second type and level of incentive to the firstuser.
 2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a messaging systemconfigured to communicate the first prompt and the second prompt to thefirst client associated with the first user.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein the appointment engine is further configured to monitor theplurality of situational factors over time, the plurality of situationalfactors including at least one of: proximity in time to the time of theopen appointment, a location of the first user or the service provider,local condition of the location, weather condition, an appointmentrecord of the first user, a payment record of the first user, a recordof services consumed or scheduled by the first user, the first user'sadherence to the provider's service recommendations, revenue potentialfrom the first user, or the first user's insurance plan or other paymentmethod for service rendered by the service provider, or demand orinterest from users for the corresponding service.
 4. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the first type and level of incentive or the secondtype and level of incentive comprises at least one of: a reward point, acredit towards future services, a gift card or certificate, or adiscount.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the appointment engine isconfigured to identify the first user from a plurality of users,according to at least one of: proximity of the first user to the serviceprovider's location, a past appointment record of the first user, a pastpayment record of the first user, a record of services consumed orscheduled by the first user, the first user's adherence to theprovider's service recommendations, revenue potential from the firstuser, or the first user's insurance plan or other payment method forservice rendered by the service provider.
 6. The system of claim 1,wherein the appointment engine is configured to identify the openappointment to be filled, according to an appointment inventory of theservice provider accessed via an interface configured for the serviceprovider.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the appointment engine isfurther configured to: determine, prior to the time of the appointment,that the first user has selected the second prompt; determine a thirdtype and level of incentive to include in a third prompt to the firstuser, to allow the appointment to be filled by a second user; andcommunicate the third prompt to the first user.
 8. The system of claim7, wherein the third prompt comprises a notification to the first userfor swapping appointments with the second user.
 9. The system of claim7, wherein the third type and level of incentive is at least based on acontribution or an offer from the second user.
 10. The system of claim1, wherein the appointment engine is further configured to: determine,prior to the time of the appointment, that the first user has acceptedthe second prompt; and communicate to a second user, a selection fromthe first user to allow the second user to fill the appointment in placeof the first user.
 11. A method comprising: identifying, by anappointment engine comprising one or more processors via a firstinterface, an appointment with a service provider to be filled, and afirst user for selection of the appointment, the first user associatedwith a first client; identifying, by the appointment engine, a pluralityof situational factors related to the first user and to the first clientassociated with the user in the selection of the appointment;determining, by the appointment engine at a first time instance prior toa time of the appointment, according to conditions of the plurality ofsituational factors, a first type and level of incentive to include in afirst prompt to the first user for selection of the appointment;determining, by the appointment engine at a second time instance afterthe first time instance and prior to the time of the appointment,according to conditions of the plurality of situational factorscorresponding to the second time instance, a second type and level ofincentive to include in a second prompt to the first user for theselection of the appointment; providing, by the appointment engine via asecond interface to the first client, an electronic message to presentthe first prompt and the second prompt for selection of the appointmentby the first user; determining, by the appointment engine, that thefirst user has selected the second offer associated with the second typeand level of incentive from the electronic message presented via thefirst client, and has completed requirements of the appointmentspecified by the second prompt; and releasing, by the appointment engineresponsive to the determination, the second type and level of incentiveto the first user.
 12. The method of claim 11, further comprisingcommunicating, via a messaging system, the first prompt and the secondprompt to the first client associated with the first user.
 13. Themethod of claim 11, further comprising monitoring, by the appointmentengine, the plurality of situational factors over time, the plurality ofsituational factors including at least one of: proximity in time to thetime of the open appointment, a location of the first user or theservice provider, local condition of the location, weather condition, anappointment record of the first user, a payment record of the firstuser, a record of services consumed or scheduled by the first user, thefirst user's adherence to the provider's service recommendations,revenue potential from the first user, or the first user's insuranceplan or other payment method for service rendered by the serviceprovider, or demand or interest from users for the correspondingservice.
 14. The method of claim 11, wherein the first type and level ofincentive or the second type and level of incentive comprises at leastone of: a reward point, a credit towards future services, a gift card orcertificate, or a discount.
 15. The method of claim 11, comprisingidentifying, by the appointment engine, the first user from a pluralityof users, according to at least one of: proximity of the first user tothe service provider's location, a past appointment record of the firstuser, a past payment record of the first user, a record of servicesconsumed or scheduled by the first user, the first user's adherence tothe provider's service recommendations, revenue potential from the firstuser, or the first user's insurance plan or other payment method forservice rendered by the service provider.
 16. The method of claim 11,comprising identifying, by the appointment engine, the open appointmentto be filled, according to an appointment inventory of the serviceprovider accessed via an interface configured for the service provider.17. The method of claim 11, further comprising: determining, prior tothe time of the appointment, that the first user has selected the secondprompt; determining a third type and level of incentive to include in athird prompt to the first user, to allow the appointment to be filled bya second user; and communicating the third prompt to the first user. 18.The method of claim 17, wherein the third prompt comprises an offer tothe first user for swapping appointments with the second user.
 19. Themethod of claim 17, wherein the third type and level of incentive is atleast based on a contribution or an offer from the second user.
 20. Themethod of claim 11, further comprising: determining, prior to the timeof the appointment, that the first user has accepted the second prompt;and communicating to a second user, a selection from the first user toallow the second user to fill the appointment in place of the firstuser.